Racist newsletters put Ron Paul on the defensive for first time
The pattern isn't surprising: As his chances of showing significant聽strength in early primaries have grown, Republican candidate Ron Paul聽is facing closer scrutiny.
The press and his rivals for the GOP nomination aren't going to give聽him a free pass in his bid for voter support.
What's suddenly big news is the racial content of Ron Paul聽newsletters from prior decades, which are getting attention for slurs against black聽Americans. But the so-called "racist newsletter" scandal is not the聽only front on which the Texas congressman is taking fire.
Other candidates have blasted his foreign policy positions, which are聽also the subject of a critical opinion column in Thursday's Wall Street听闯辞耻谤苍补濒.
To some degree, Mr. Paul is getting what he's given. In the聽build-up to primary votes in Ohio and New Hampshire, he has served up聽some strong criticism of other Republican candidates.
Whatever has prompted the current negative headlines about Paul聽(whether it's partly his own negative ads about rivals or not), the聽onus is now on him. After dishing it out, he needs to show he can take it聽鈥� and provide an adequate response.
Recent examples of Paul going negative on other candidates:
- One ad focused on alleged "serial hypocrisy" by Newt Gingrich. The聽ad showed examples of policy flip-flops by the former House聽speaker while in office, the implication that Mr. Gingrich's values聽were tainted by later financial ties to Freddie Mac and the health聽care industry.
- Another ad titled "Consistent" called out aspirants Mitt Romney,听Rick Perry, and Herman Cain for supporting federal bailouts during the聽2008 financial crisis, while portraying Paul as delivering a consistent聽message of fiscal conservatism for more than two decades.
- His "Big Dog" spot opens with the words, "What's up with these聽sorry politicians? Lots of bark. When it's showtime, whimpering like聽little Shih Tzu's." OK, maybe the Shih Tzu is the only one directly聽named in a negative light. But the ad implies that other candidates聽won't deliver on promises to curb Washington spending in a hurry,听while Paul will.
Perhaps this is just Paul being persistent in pointing out his聽policy differences with other candidates, and in emphasizing聽constistency as his strong suit. That has won him lots of fans,听especially among libertarian-leaning Republicans.
The questions about racism in Paul's newsletters of the early 1990s聽have surfaced before, but are coming more prominently to national聽attention this week.
Among the examples cited by the conservative Weekly Standard: the聽newsletter criticized the Martin Luther King holiday as "our annual聽Hate Whitey Day."
An editorial in the Los Angeles Times Wednesday called for clearer聽answers from Paul: "Paul has disavowed the ranting of the newsletter聽published under his name (just as he did when the subject came up in聽2008) and his spokesman says that Paul didn't write it and 'disagrees聽with it totally.' That's comforting. Sort of. It helps distance Paul聽from these lunatic scribblings, but it fails to answer the question of聽why he allowed them to be published in the first place."
Supporters of Paul say he's being unfairly tarred by his foes in the聽mainstream media and the Republican Party elite, without a full聽examination of his personal record. One blog post on the DailyPaul.com聽cites evidence of Paul naming a black American as a possible running聽mate four years ago, and of his caring about racial minorities.
"When聽challenging the war on drugs," the post says, "Paul often points out聽the injustice of blacks and minorities being imprisoned at a higher聽rate than whites for the same crime."
Paul is also drawing criticism from conservatives for his foreign聽policy views. Backers praise Paul for standing apart from others in聽the GOP who supported the war in Iraq and who now are engaged in saber聽rattling over Iran.
But in a recent debate, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) of Minnesota called聽Paul's reluctance to confront Iran dangerous, and other candidates聽piled on.
Similarly, on Thursday, Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal聽derided Paul for blaming an aggressive US foreign policy for the 9/11聽terrorist attacks.
Summation: It's been a tough week or so for Ron Paul, leaving him some聽damage control to do even as his poll numbers have looked strong in聽key states.
